Patna festival stampede kills 20

At least 20 people, including children and women, mostly devotees, were killed and several others were injured in a stampede during Chhath festival celebrations in Patna on Monday evening, police said. A district administration official said the incident took place when people were returning after offering prayers at sunset at Adalatganj ghat on Ganga river. The stampede followed the collapse of a makeshift bamboo bridge at the ghat. City Police SP Jayantkant was quoted saying nine children were among the dead. The number of people injured was stated to be over 50; they have been rushed to nearby Patna Medical College Hospital and other private nursing homes. Monday being a holiday due to the festival, several doctors and other hospital staff were said to be on leave. All the bodies were brought to the Patna Medical College and Hospital for post mortem and the injured were admitted for treatment. District Magistrate Sanjay Kumar Singh and Superintendent of Police Jayant Kant were camping at the hospital. Over 400,000 people from Patna and nearby areas gathered at different ghats here for Chhath celebration, officials said. Also on Monday in the Madhya Pradesh capital Bhopal, seven people were killed and 35 others injured when an overhead water tank collapsed in Saibaba Nagar slum area in the wee hours. The overhead water tank of Bhopal Municipal Corporation (BMC) collapsed at Saibaba Nagar at around 1 AM, killing seven persons and trapping a large number of others, Bhopal Collector Nikunj Shrivastava told PTI. A number of slums situated in the vicinity of the large water tank also got damaged in the incident, he said. The cause behind the sudden collapse of the water tank was yet to be ascertained. Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has announced an ex-gratia of Rs100,000 each to the kin of those killed in the incident and directed the officials to provide free of cost treatment to the injured persons. Besides, Rs25,000 each would be provided to the seriously injured persons and Rs10,000 each to those who suffered minor injuries. The chief minister also ordered Rs50,000 each to the slum dwellers whose houses suffered major damages and Rs20,000 each for the partially damaged ones, officials said. Senior administrative and police officials were camping in the area to supervise the rescue operation. The Chhath festival in Bihar started on Saturday and is ending on Tuesday. Lakhs of devotees, majority of them women, offered prayers in various water bodies across Bihar on the third day of the Chhath festival. During the festival, married women observe a fast for 36 hours and devotees offer wheat, milk, sugarcane, bananas and coconuts to the Sun. The festival began on Saturday, and will end on Tuesday. In Patna, fasting men and women thronged the ghats on the bank of Ganga and stood in waist-deep water to offer prayers to the setting Sun to seek blessings for their families. Elaborate arrangements were made by the municipal authorities and ghats and roads enroute to the river were spruced up. The ghats were barricaded to enable the worshippers and their families offer prayers in an orderly manner, official sources said.